Tagged: Summer Olympics

November 12 in history:

An American Airlines flight crashed in Queens, New York on November 12th, 2001, shortly after taking off from JFK Airport. More than 250 people were killed. It was the first major crash of a commercial airplane in the U.S. since the World Trade Center attack two months earlier, leading to concerns that it might be an act of terrorism. Even though pilot error was found to be the cause of the disaster, rumors spread that a terrorist did blow up the plane.

A very unusual explosion took place on this date in 1970, in Florence, Oregon…after a whale beached itself there. The Oregon Highway Division was the agency in charge of the state’s beaches at the time, and highway staffers decided that the best way to dispose of the eight-ton whale carcass was to blow it up with half-a-ton of dynamite. The explosion, captured on film by a local TV station, blasted chunks of whale hundreds of feet from the carcass.

An ice skating star was born in Oregon on the same day that whale blew up. Tonya Harding competed in women’s figure skating at the Winter Olympics of 1992 and 1994. The second time, Harding’s backers plotted to help her get to the Olympics by physically attacking her chief rival, Nancy Kerrigan, at the U.S. championships. Tonya got to the Olympics again, but the scheme blew up in their faces. Kerrigan recovered from her leg injury and won the Olympic silver medal, while Harding placed 8th.

Harding shares her November 12th birthday with another Olympic athlete: Nadia Comaneci of Romania, born in 1961. Comaneci made history at the Montreal Games of 1976 by getting the first perfect score in Olympic women’s gymnastics.

About Brad Williams

"Triviazoids" author Brad Williams is the second person ever studied for the syndrome dubbed "superior autobiographical memory" by researchers at the University of California in Irvine.
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Described as "the Human Google" by "Good Morning America," Brad has appeared on "60 Minutes," "NBC Nightly News," "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Live with Regis and Kelly" and CNN.
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Brad works as a radio news anchor on WKTY and Classic Hits 94.7 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. His brother, Eric Williams, has made a documentary about Brad, titled "Unforgettable",now available for purchase or rent on Amazon and Vimeo. For information about the film, and to view clips from the documentary, please visit www.unforgettabledoc.com.